hiding in plain sight
by thewordsofalullaby
Summary: The next step in their fight against BPO involves everyone going undercover, but convincing Wolfgang to wear anything that isn't black is a challenge. (Post-Season 2. Mostly Wolfgang/Kala, but a good dose of Felix too. Inspired by recent cast photos so very minor spoilers for the special if you haven't seen them.)


In the end, with both Whispers and Jonas in their possession, they manage to figure out exactly where Wolfgang is being kept and successfully rescue him. It takes him weeks to physically recover from the tortuous ordeal he went through at BPO, but eventually his chest stops feeling so raw and his head stops feeling so numb. Recovering mentally from the experience, on the other hand, is not so easy: every time he closes his eyes, he can't help but picture Whispers' face looming above him, ready to administer another shock to his chest.

The only thing that stops him from completely losing it is the fact that he's somehow with his cluster in real life, and they're immediately at his side every time they sense that his thoughts are about to spiral into darkness, ready to pull him out of it. At first, he tries to shrug them off and put on a brave face (they already risked their lives to save him, even when he was fucking weak enough to give away half their identities to BPO; he already owes them enough), but then he sees Kala shaking her head at him in response, a frown on her face, so he stops. He forces himself to swallow his guilt and his pride, and simply accept their help if they're willing to give it to him; the answering smiles that he gets from every member of his cluster once he stops pushing them away is enough for his heart to lighten, if only by a fraction.

(Kala is another important factor to his recovery. He's not entirely sure how it's possible, but she's somehow more beautiful in person, and he can feel her in his head even stronger than before. She doesn't leave his side if she can help it, her fingers always softly smoothing over his arms, his jaw, his chest, as if to constantly remind herself that he's really with her; between Rajan's corruption investigation and the mess with BPO, she hasn't had the chance to talk to Rajan yet about her connection to him, but the way she looks at him and the way she's constantly there makes him believe that for the first time in his whole fucking life, maybe, just maybe, everything will work out.)

Once he's finally recovered enough to be back on his feet, he (enthusiastically) joins in with the rest of the cluster's scheming to take down BPO. They're in Naples now, having figured out that one of the largest BPO facilities is based there, and they're not alone: Hernando and Dani had followed Lito all the way from Mexico, and Diego and Mun are here on Will's and Sun's request respectively. Felix is also here; as soon as Wolfgang's chest had healed enough for him to speak without intense pain wracking his body, he had asked – demanded – that they find Felix and explain everything. The first time he manages to crack a smile is when Felix rushes into the room, immediately launching himself on top of him, his arms wrapping around him tightly. Felix doesn't let go for a long time and his body starts aching even more because of it, but Wolfgang doesn't give a shit; he's just glad that Felix is safe and here. Felix is immediately accepting of the fact that Wolfgang is an entirely different species altogether and can talk to people in his head; a little too accepting, maybe. ("Wolfie, I always knew you were fucking weird," he tells him easily, with a shrug, when Wolfgang questions why he doesn't think he's – they're – insane. "It's why we're friends." Wolfgang shakes his head, corrects him firmly: "Brothers." He gets another tight hug for that.) Nevertheless, Wolfgang is immensely relieved that Felix finally knows about the cluster as he's always hated keeping secrets from him.

The only problem is, whilst they know that there's a BPO facility in Naples and craft a plan to take it down, BPO figures out where they are before they've executed it. Lito, Hernando and Dani step out one day to purchase some supplies for the group when they're suddenly running for their lives as they hear gunshots behind them, aimed right at their heads. None of them are particularly surprised by this turn of events, but it makes their plan much trickier and much riskier to carry out.

"We need to be more careful from now on," Will says, standing and addressing the entire room. Everyone murmurs in agreement. "Our plan can still work, but we'll need to go undercover."

"As…what?"

Several suggestions are thrown out into the room, some of which are significantly more useful than others (Wolfgang is pretty sure he hears Lito suggest ninjas, seconded by Capheus), but in the end, they decide that dressing as tourists is their best bet, given that Naples is full of them. The room falls into silence for a (rare) minute before Lito solemnly breaks it again: "It is said that if you want to hide something, you must hide it where everyone can find it."

Twelve heads swirl around to stare at him.

Lito shrugs, coughs, looking embarrassed. "It's a line from a movie I was in a long time ago, "The Hidden Disguise of—"

"—Did anyone die in this one?" Nomi interrupts.

Lito tilts his head, thinks, then nods.

"Lito!"

* * *

Ironically, whilst Wolfgang definitely has more experience than most of them in working covert operations, disguises is not an area he has any experience in, period. He's never bothered with disguises; he's almost always carried out his jobs in the middle of the night so dressing in black is the optimal choice for camouflage purposes. Plus, he's felt most comfortable in greys and blacks ever since his mother passed - it doesn't draw any attention, it conceals, and it frustrates Felix to no end - and to be a good box man, you have to be relaxed.

"Wolfgang, is this what you're wearing today? You do remember what we discussed yesterday, right?" Will asks, eyebrow raised, as Wolfgang appears at the doorway, looking no different than he does every other day, dressed head-to-toe in black. "We're supposed to be…blending in."

Wolfgang crosses his arms defensively in response, moving to lean against the wall. He slowly does a scan of the room, his eyes narrowing as he sees what everyone is wearing: all of them are dressed in various shades of pastel with sunglasses perched on their heads and cameras hanging around their necks.

Before he can register what is happening, Felix has bounded towards him, roughly grabbing his arm and pushing him back up the stairs he just came down, ignoring his protests ("Felix, no. Fucking let go of me.") He tries his hardest to squirm out of his grip, but then he sees that right behind Felix is Lito and Kala, wide grins on their faces as they follow them up the stairs; the sight of Kala's grin is enough for him to pause, stop resisting so hard and allow Felix to drag him wherever he wants.

"This is the best fucking day of my life," Felix exclaims emphatically, as he roughly pushes Wolfgang down to sit on the bed and then opens his wardrobe with a flourish. "Best. Fucking. Day."

Wolfgang groans, moving to lie on his back, squeezing his eyes shut. "I'm not wearing anything you choose for me," he tells him, as threateningly as he can muster. "There is no way in hell that you're going to get me to wear anything in there."

The room is silent, and after a few moments, Wolfgang slowly cracks open one eye. Felix and Lito are grinning at him, tilting their heads at Kala.

"Perhaps not," Felix says, just as Kala walks over to him, tugging his arm until he's sitting upright again, "but I'm sure Kala will be able to convince you."

He frowns.

"Wolfgang, you agreed to the plan," Kala says, reaching out to hold his face in her hands, leaning in towards him until all he can think about is, well, her. He thinks she knows this too, based on the way she smiles at him, looking decidedly not innocent. "What's the worst that can happen? It's only some clothes."

He tenses his jaw, grits his teeth, but then Kala's leaning forward to kiss him and damn it. He sighs deeply as they break apart, but gives them the tiniest of nods. He just can't say no to Kala, especially when she's so close, so real, and her mouth is on his. He lies back on the bed again, closes his eyes and repeats Kala's words to himself over and over in his head: it's only some clothes, it's only some clothes, it's only some fucking clothes.

"Have I told you how much I love you, Kala?" Felix asks, and Wolfgang sighs again as he hears a high-five being exchanged. He was so relieved when they were first introduced to each other and instantly got along, but now he desperately wishes that they hadn't. He squeezes his eyes shut harder as he hears excited chatter and giggling about what they can dress him in. He doesn't remember the last time he wore an outfit that wasn't mostly black or grey, and he's pretty fucking displeased about the situation he's currently in.

"What about this?"

"No, no, I think that one brings out his eyes more."

"This shirt?"

"Yes, sister, that's perfect!"

"Do you think we should make him wear a cap too?"

Wolfgang doesn't know how long he lies there, listening to their voices, but suddenly he's being tugged upright by multiple hands and clothes are being shoved into his face. He blinks hard, then immediately shakes his head as he sees the pastel colours.

"No fucking way," he states, but all three of them are just grinning at him, moving to slip his leather jacket off his shoulders. He tries his hardest to resist, but he doesn't know how best to do that except to hit them all in the face which is not something he really wants to do (even now); instead, he just grabs onto his jacket with both hands and does his best to hold it to his body.

It takes about five minutes of frantic struggling before Felix and Lito exchange glances, let go of him, and silently leave the room. He blinks in confusion, but then Kala moves in front of him, standing between his legs, frowning softly at him, and he knows immediately why they left, the assholes (in fact, if he focuses hard enough, he can vaguely hear Lito think it – he knows that if anyone's going to get him to wear these clothes, it's Kala).

"Wolfgang, it's just some clothes," she says matter-of-factly, as she presses several kisses to his cheek, jaw. "I know you have an attachment to wearing black and all, but it's just until we figure out how to take down the BPO facility. It's really not a big deal."

He eyes her, but doesn't say anything; instead, he moves his hands to her waist, tugging her closer until she's flush against him. She smiles at him in response, reaching up to run her hands along his jawline, the motion making the tension seep out of his body. She bends to catch his mouth, gently kissing him, and he finds himself nodding slowly as she pulls away, surrendering to her. Kala is so fucking smart – by far, the most intelligent person he has ever met – and he doesn't think he'll ever be able to argue with her and win. She's full of logic and common sense, whilst he's full of impulsiveness and irrational choices, and he's still not entirely sure why she—

"—Wolfgang, stop," Kala warns, and he instantly knows that she can sense what he's thinking. Her gaze is warm and sincere as she lifts his chin so that he's meeting her eyes. "You know how I feel about you."

He gives her a soft smile in response, lets her squeeze his hand reassuringly, before twisting to move the heaped pile of pastel clothing towards himself. She grins as he starts to shrug off his leather jacket, giving him a mischievous look as she says, "Felix is going to be so happy."

Whilst he's changing, he purposefully avoids looking in the mirror so that he can't see his own reflection. He's not sure what he looks like dressed in pastels, and to be quite fucking honest, he doesn't really want to know. Kala's grin gets wider and wider as he pulls on a pair of pale blue jeans and drapes a pink denim shirt over his shoulders, and he thinks distractedly that her grin might just be worth what is likely to be a very humiliating experience for him.

"Are we done?"

Kala laughs, tugs at his arm. She gestures for him to bend down slightly, and she stands on her tiptoes to place a baseball cap onto his head.

"Now we're done," she tells him, about to pull away, but he doesn't let her, catching her mouth before she can. He feels her smile against his lips, her hands moving to the back of his head, keeping him there. He's suddenly got the urge to remove all the horribly colourful clothes he's just put on, as well as Kala's, when he hears loud banging on the door: "Wolfie, are you done yet?"

"Felix, fuck off," Wolfgang grits out, irritated at being interrupted.

Kala laughs at him, sticks out her tongue, and then turns to open the door; except when she does so, not only is Felix there, but the other six members of the cluster. They stare at Wolfgang, eyes wide, all of them gaping at him. He shifts in response, feeling instantly uncomfortable underneath their collective gaze, his jaw tensing, but then he feels Kala take his hand, interlacing their fingers and grounding him.

"Let's go," she tells them, and he faintly hears her ask them not to comment on his appearance in his head – their heads. Everyone slowly nods, filtering out of the room in silence, though he's pretty sure he hears the sound of their amused chuckling once they're a safe distance away from him. (Felix, on the other hand, doesn't get Kala's message and immediately doubles up with laughter, almost in hysterics. Wolfgang glowers intensely at him until he slowly leaves, though he's still fucking laughing and Wolfgang knows he's never going to stop hearing about this.)

Kala moves to lead him out of the room as well, but he stops her. She pauses, turns to raise her eyebrow at him, and he bends his head to meet her gaze. "If anyone else had asked me to wear these clothes," he starts, then trails off, not sure how to express how much he loves her, but he knows Kala understands because she's suddenly pressing a kiss against his mouth again.

"The shirt suits you," she tells him as she pulls away. "Lito was right, it really does bring out your eyes." He squints at her, mouth already opening to object, but then he realises she's teasing, her eyes playful.

"Don't worry," she says reassuringly as she tugs him out of the room, "I still prefer you in black."

He breathes a sigh of relief at that.


End file.
